


raking window from the pane

by chanterai



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Drabble, Eye Trauma, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2020-01-31 10:23:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18589318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chanterai/pseuds/chanterai
Summary: He just wants to see the light.





	raking window from the pane

**Author's Note:**

> oh boy this is a mess. please note that eye trauma tag
> 
> for @[rouwan](http://twitter.com/rouwan) on twitter, based on [this comic](https://twitter.com/rouwan/status/1107223502015221760) they drew
> 
> I'M SORRY?
> 
>  
> 
> soundtrack: [battle of mice - bones in the water](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wScX-ao9ZU)

It’s easier than he expects.

Riku is strong, yes — fast, and the hits that he does manage to land could break bones if Vanitas weren’t just a little faster. Riku has dark in him, yes, but the dark is Vanitas’ domain and so he goes down with what feels like little effort. Slides across the floor in a bloodied, gasping heap and Vanitas smiles at him as he goes.

Sora comes for him with an intensity Vanitas is expecting after Riku hits the ground. And Sora is strong too, yes, powerful and so bright that it burns. But here, the shadows swell and cling under Vanitas’ touch and it slows Sora to a near crawl, and even as his keyblade connects — once, twice, three times across his ribcage — Vanitas has the upper hand.

And so Sora falls as well. So easy.

“Pathetic,” Vanitas says sweetly. “What a disappointment.”

Void Gear is slung casually over his shoulder as he moves toward Sora’s trembling form. He doesn’t dismiss it, no, because he’s not _stupid_. He knows these bright children and they almost always have a trick up their sleeve. Caution is wise. Wariness pays.

But Sora’s keyblade has disappeared by the time Vanitas is stood in front of him, by the time he reaches down to get a hand in his hair and yank his head back.

Sora glares up at him. Dim blue eyes defiant in the dull grey of his face.

Vanitas tips his head to one side, tongues at the inside of his cheek.

He asks, “how does the world look to you?”

Sora’s brows come together. Against his grip, Vanitas can feel him try to tilt his head away.

“I don’t understand,” Sora says. His voice rasps. Vanitas thinks of broken bones and punctured lungs and he beams.

“I want to see the light the way you see it,” he tells him.

At that Sora’s eyes go lighter, face softening as Void Gear disappears and Vanitas lets go of Sora’s hair to cup his cheek all sweet and gentle. As Vanitas thumbs just below his eye.

And maybe Sora realizes what Vanitas is doing before he does it, but by then it’s too late.

He presses his fingers into Sora’s eye socket and pulls his eye free from his skull with a soft _pop_.

Sora screams. He screams and it’s the most beautiful sound Vanitas has ever heard. A symphony, a choir, a single pure note of agony that sends a euphoric shiver down the length of Vanitas’ spine.

He takes a step back with the eyeball cradled in his palm, trailing bits of nerve and gore, hot against his glove. A spot of blue in shades of grey and black and the faded red of Sora’s blood. He bites his lip and he smiles in what he thinks might be a reverent way before he reaches up to brush wet fingertips across his cheek and then pries his own eyeball out of its socket.

It goes easier than Sora’s had. And it hurts, yes, it _hurts_ but it’s worth it, transcendent in a way he can’t describe as he compares their eyes — clear blue and sharp gold — in his hands.

His own eye fades away into the dark. Sora’s eye, however, he presses into his own empty socket.

He blinks once, and then twice. And then everything is…

Everything is beautiful.

There are _colours_ now, when he looks to where Riku’s dragged Sora into his lap. The vivid colours of their clothes, the paleness of Riku’s skin and the sea-green of his eyes. The brilliance of Sora’s remaining eye, watery and glittering bright and blue. The rich red of his blood streaking down his cheek, still sticky on Vanitas’ fingers.

And the _light_.

Sora hums with it, tan skin shining gold, a warm light from within. Even with the darkness in him, Riku’s eyes nearly glow.

Vanitas brings his fingers to his mouth and he licks them like he’s just finished the most wonderful meal. And he laughs.

He understands, now, why they cherish the light so much.

“Beautiful,” he murmurs. “Just _lovely_.”

And he summons Void Gear again, savours the way Sora’s blood and his own mingles and slips a bit on the handle.

He grins wide and feral as he brings his keyblade up in a wide arc.

He’d like to see more of that bright, rich red.

**Author's Note:**

> this is based on the assumption that vanitas has like... cat vision? so mostly colour blind though he can see blues and greens and a bit of red, less saturation (also sort of near sighted! give this boy some glasses)
> 
> come say hi on twitter! @[buffmickeymouse](http://twitter.com/buffmickeymouse)


End file.
